Page - 483 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

The Central Powers and Central Europe 483 statesmen of Central Europe, in the same way as German patriots such as Friedrich List and the great Austrian trade politician Karl Ludwig von Bruck 1840-1860 pre- pared for the fulfilment in word and deed.’ The peoples of the Balkan Peninsula could not distance themselves from this, the position paper continued, and would again ex- perience a period of growth as a result. ‘This work of peace is, aside from what has been gained by the sword in Belgium and Poland and can still be gained, the victory prize to be carried away from the World War.’1145 To a certain extent, what had been written at the end of 1914 and the beginning of 1915 in the position papers of Andrian-Werburg, Baron Mérey, Count Szápáry, Baron von Wense and Count Wickenburg was continued here, although the latter in particu- lar had been expansive and had described alongside territorial conquests also economic expansion as far as Asia Minor and Persia.1146 Politicians, business people and academ- ics added to and varied the topics addressed and wanted in this way to bring a clear line into the debate on war aims and into the politics of the two halves of Austria-Hungary. In the diverse circles it was generally a case of large-scale economic policy, whereby the questions of the future possibilities for developing Austria-Hungary’s economy, which had been virulent even before the war, received a noticeable weightlessness. It was not a question of annoying quotas in the compensation negotiations between Austria and Hungary, or import and export obstacles, and also not of the relationship to Ger- many, but rather of a comprehensive imperialist concept and generous settlements in a pan-Continental space.1147 Here the question of the role that the German Empire and Austria-Hungary would play in Egypt and the Middle East could finally be inserted, which was otherwise at best a secondary aspect in the war of the Central Powers. The ‘Jihad’, or holy war, had not achieved very much, and the Austro-Hungarian representatives in the High Porte, the ambassador Margrave Johann Pallavicini and the military plenipotentiary Brigadier Joseph Pomiankowski, characterised it as a complete failure.1148 They also had other doubts regarding the clout and loyalty to the alliance on the part of the Ottoman Em- pire. Austria’s representatives in the High Porte intervened repeatedly due to the cruel treatment of the Armenians by the Turks. It was furthermore irritating and annoying that the Turks for their part attempted to compare the resettlement of the Armenians and the countless dead in the suppression of the rebellion of the Armenians in Turkey with the approach of the Imperial and Royal authorities against the Serbs in Bosnia and Dalmatia.1149 Other events, however, gave cause for optimism and inspired the im- agination. The Moravian prelate Dr Alois Musil had carried out expeditions until July 1915 to the tribes of the Arabian Peninsula in order to incite them against the British.1150 The Egyptian Khedive Abbas II Hilmi, who had a Hungarian adjutant, made no secret of his pro-Austrian stance, and the Austrians in the Orient repeatedly heard that they were shown far more sympathy than the Germans.1151 Why should this not bear fruit ?